The Fragile Mind
by My.Last.Resort
Summary: Far away from Kohana, a grass ninja comits suicide. Naruto finds a boy named Koza beaten outside the village. more conects theses to events then it first seems. What lies in store for Naruto with the arival of the new boy.


The Fragile Mind

Disclaimer: Naruto: My Last Resort does not own me. Just Koza, Ginsa, and whoever I'm forgetting. She wishes she owned me but she doesn't so she will just have to accept it and try to move on.

**Ginsa Okuru**

Ginsa Okuru cried. They were loud pitiful sobs of despair. He was alone; the only company he had was the sound of his own voice as he talked to the darkness around him, the darkness itself, and the voice. At times the voice would be inside his head. Others it would be all around him, but never far away. Once he had asked the voice who, or what it was. The voice gave him an answer.

Ginsa did not understand then, but he came to accept it. He talked to the voice. The voice would talk to him in return. He asked the voice questions. The voice would give him answers. Sometimes the voice would ask him questions. He would do his best to give answers.

Sobs racked his body as he cried. The voice would not console him. Time was lost to him. Five minuets or five days, to him it made no difference. All he had was himself, the darkness, and the voice. The voice was opening his eyes. Ginsa was seeing his life for what it really was, empty and alone. Before the voice, he had never noticed how pathetic his meager existence was. He slowly started to see the voice for what it really was. He started to see what the voice had told him it was. The voice was him. He was the voice.

He asked the voice what he should do. The voice told him to end it all. He knew the voice was right. He knew that the only thing left to do now was to step into the nothingness that would welcome him with open arms; and forever end his pain.

Ginsa was leaned against the wall, his knees pulled up to his chin as he cried. He emerged from his fetal position and stood; tears fell freely from him and glinted as they fell down to the carpet. He looked around and saw a kunai point down in the wood of a table, waiting for him. He went over to it and wrapped his hand around it. He positioned the knife and in one fluid motion, cut his throat. Blood glisned in the air and he crashed to the floor.

Someone was standing over the dead man. They looked at it for a moment before departing, as silent as death itself. The job was done. All that was left now was to collect the payment.

No one in his village would know why he did it. He had always seemed happy to those around him. He was a jonin of the hidden grass village, an elite ninja. He may not have had the perfect life but there seemed to be no reason to kill himself. His house would be examined for any evidence showing the involvement of another person. They would never find anything. They could ask then neighbors if they had seen anyone suspicious, anyone out of the ordinary. They would say no. They would examine the body to see if it could give and useful information. Eventually they would come to the conclusion that Ginsa had died at his own hands, and no one else's.

Only two people knew the true reason why Ginsa Okuru had killed himself; the one who had had wanted him to die, and the one who made it happen.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

I shivered. The one I hired gave me the creeps. But I did not regret it. Ginsa deserved to die, after what he did to me. And it was costing me half of what any other ninja would have charged. I did not know the name of the one I hired; just that he specialized in information retrieval and assassination. I thought back:

_The meeting was to be at 5:00 sharp at a large knotted oak along a lonesome dirt road outside the village. I had arrived and checked my watch. I was one minuet early, according the piece of clockwork on my wrist. I leaned against the tree and had only to wait for a minuet before I saw a figure approach from the opposite direction that I had come. He was dressed in a black hooded cloak, which hid his entire body except for his face, which was hidden behind a mask. My eyesight was fading in my old age and I was forced to squint to get a better view of it. The mask curved slightly as it stretched over his face, so it would not press on his nose, assuming he had a nose. There were no other features on the mask, just a slit for his left eye. As he approached, the color of the mask changed. It went from brown, to green, to black. Sometimes it was a twisted combination of the three. It even showed distorted images, they were had to make out and sometimes there weren't any; a tree, a road, grass, me. He was now standing directly in front of me, and I realized why his mask was always changing. It was a mirror. Only it wasn't a whole mirror. There was a small part that seemed to of been chipped away, directly over where his right eye was, exposing it to the world. I would never forget that eye. Sharp and piercing, it cut right through me, chilling me to the bone. _

"_Well?" the stranger questioned._

_I held out my hand and presented the small folder. On the cover of the folder read the name 'Ginsa Okuru' The one across from me took it and looked through it for a moment. I waited nervously. _

"_Will you do it?" I asked. Then he told how much it would cost, and when I could expect to be contacted again, to give him the payment. I assumed that was a yes _

_Before departing, the stranger looked back at me and said._

"_He will die by his own hand, and he will suffer." _

_That creped me out something terrible. _

Now I was waiting again bye the same oak, on the same dirt road. Once again the stranger came from the opposite direction. His mask showing twisted views of the world around him. He stopped next to me and informed me that Ginsa Okuru was dead. I nodded and gave the stranger the money I had promised to give as payment. The stranger accepted it and left. I let out a sigh of relief, glad to be freed from his presence.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Naruto! Would you try and take this seriously?" Sakura asked and shouted at the blond ninja.

"I'm sorry Sakura; it's just that this is so boring!"

"It doesn't matter if it's boring, it's a mission and we have to do it!"

As much as Sakura hated to admit it, Naruto was right. This was boring. Picking bushel after bushel of berries in the woods outside the village was not her idea of fun either.

"I still don't see why we have to pick all these. They're not even editable." complained the whining ninja.

"They're for medicine!" answered an annoyed Sakura.

"Ya, whatever."

Several minuets passed without any conversation between the three genin. Naruto slowly wandered further and further away from the others mumbling something about a 'waste of his talent'. He noticed something quite out of place; someone lying facedown in the dirt, not far from the road. He did a double take and went over. For a moment the thought it was Gaara, because of his hair, but his skin wasn't anywhere near pale enough. Naruto kneeled down next to him and rolled him over onto his back. He called his teammates over.

"Naruto, it isn't something stupid is it?" questioned a solemn looking Sasuke, but realized that it wasn't as he noticed the boy on the ground. He was about the same age as them, maybe a little older. His skin was somewhat tan, and his clothes were old, tattered, and looked to big form him. In edition he was bruised all over, had a black eye and his was swollen, as though he had been beaten.

Later in the hokage's office, the boy the three genin had found was explaining how he ended up beaten and bruised outside the village to Tsunade, Kakashi, and the three genin who had found him. He was doing his best to talk and eat a bowl of ramen at the same time.

"I was traveling. (slurp) I ran out of food. ( chew) Tried to find food, ate poisonous mushroom. (slurp) Threw up. Gave up on trying to find my own food. (munch) Ran across bunch of robbers, stole food from them. (slurp) Got busted. Ran. They ran after me and I got the (slurp) crap beaten out of me. They took all my stuff. When I could get up, I tried to make my way here. (slurp) Leaned against tree to rest, fell asleep (slurp) woke up here. Can I have any more?"

While he was sleeping his injuries had been treated in the hospital. It looked worse then it actually was. When he woke up, he asked for food and fell asleep while eating it. He had told them that his name was Koza, he was thirteen, and according to him he was an orphan. He had no family to live with so instead he made his way from village to village, staying with people who would open their doors to him and working to pay off his rent. When he had regained enough strength he was brought before Tsunade so it could be decided what to do with him. He told them his story through mouthfuls of ramen. Naruto's heart went out to the boy when he heard he was an orphan. Naruto came to a decision.

"He can stay with me!"

All heads in the room turned to face the blond ninja.

"Are you sure Naruto?" Kakashi asked. Naruto nodded vigorously. "Well, unless our guest has any complaints…" Kakashi dragged off. Koza shook his head. "Then it's settled."

"So… you're a ninja huh?" Koza asked. Naruto looked up at him.

"That's right! And I'm going to become hokage!" Naruto shouted.

"Right…"

For a minuet, there was silence. Naruto looked at the boy standing next to him; spiky red hair that could easily be mistaken for Gaara's; half a head taller then Naruto; an expression on this face that was hard to read, yet seemed to be somewhat innocent.

Bye the time the arrived at the place where Naruto lived, they had broken the ice and where now talking like they had know each other for quite sometime. Naruto threw open the door.

"Here we are! Make yourself at home, what's mine is yours!" Koza stepped in and looked around.

"Works for me" he announced before throwing himself on Naruto's bed. Naruto glared at him.

"That's where I sleep."

"Aww, come on."

"Get off!"

"All right, all right." Koza dragged himself off the bed and made his way to what he hoped was the bathroom, but never quite made it as he suddenly went slack and fell against the wall and slid down to the floor. Naruto jumped up and ran over to him, worried that maybe his condition had been worse then thay had thought. He was somewhat annoyed when he found him snoring quietly. Naruto sighed and moved him into a more comfortable position. Naruto prepared for bed, put on his nightcap and fell asleep almost as suddenly as Koza had.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

This was somewhat different then anything I've written before. Well… not too much I can say right now. Just please tell me what you thought. If you have any recommendations for how I could improve this chapter (especially the part with Ginsa) I would be glad to hear them. If people like this then I will write the next chapter and obviously, post it. If people say this sucks I will cry and probably delete this. If you found this at all confusing I will be happy to explain anything I can. Soooo that's about it.


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